We often relate to arisings and beginnings as intrinsically and wholly good (think kids and puppies, spring flowers...), but surely there's more to the story, for everything in nature tends to create its opposite.
This will be a day of reflections and practices on the themes of interest and enthusiasm, and their painful shadow, the obsessive quality of becoming.
Most usefully we will explore the ways that the heart can be freed from such obsessive addictions so the cycles of nature can be integrated harmoniously.

The wisdom of the Buddha can guide us not only in discovering inner freedom, but in healing that which divides us from each other. While conflict is inevitable--we are wired toward flight and flight when our needs are not met--it is possible to have our patterns of interpersonal reactivity be the very grounds for awakening. This talk draws on the work of Non Violent Comunications (Marshal Rosenberg) and explores how mindful communications are an interpersonal meditation that gives rise to compassion and understanding.